of the next four years of whoever wins the presidential election on november 6. >> i am 100% certain they can all be done. will they? i think there will be enormous pressure for the business community. this is an opportunity. 2013 in many ways could determine the first half of the truck for century in terms of economic growth and opportunity. this could soar america, if we make decisions. -- this could be a very good time for america, if we make decisions. >> i am optimistic. i believe circumstances around america and the world create an

environment where whoever is in authority and power have to act or pay the price. >> i am optimistic. i do not think the american people will settle for anything less than success, and they are going to drive this debate. as business leaders, our job is to insure the business community is involved in the discussion. if they are, politicians will do the right thing. >> to you think american politicians will do what is needed? >> you will not find pessimist'' up here. we would not do what we do for a living. the problems we face can be solved. americans can be counted on to do the right thing after they have exhausted every other possibility. we would get it done. >> you can never go wrong ending on churchill. thank you for joining me.

[applause] >> thank you all for joining us for conversations and power today, and a big thank-you to a keen observer on washington politics and the economy, as well who as a great moderator. and thank you to our panelists. we really appreciate you all being here. i would also like to again thank our sponsors at bloomberg government, the roth political report -- and a reminder that if you enjoyed today, we do this for state of the industry conferences. a reminder -- in four weeks, election day will be held. a couple of days afterward, we will have a major event at the

chamber, on the morning of november 8. we hope you will mark our -- mark your calendars and join us. thank you very much, and have a great day. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> both presidential candidates are in ohio, with rallies this afternoon. mitt romney is a kind of false -- is at the falls. the president fifth event at ohio state university will start shortly. meanwhile, a discussion of how the presidential race shapes up. >> we will be getting electoral scoreboard updates from a lot

of publications. today, we feature "the wall street journal." which are joined by a political reporter there. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: what are we looking at? guest: you can see which states we have classified as swing states at this point. we are down to eight, a fairly small number of up-for-grabs states that are in play. but you can look at how the measures that are important to understanding the states. we have talked about the national economy. it is also important to look at the economy within each of these states. you can look at unemployment numbers, foreclosure numbers, the price of a gallon of gas in virginia. you can also look at the history

of each of these states, to give you a sense of where the have been in the past and where they might be headed. it gives you a good sense of which states are in play. you can't even play around and make your own mouth, -- map, and sketched out different paths for victory. >> right now, you have 251 points for barack obama. the states in play hard hatch marks and are not color-coded. what is the data that goes into making this analysis? >> deciding which are swing states, we looked at an average of polls. we look at all the polls that are out there, and come up with an average.

you can see, when you take all the data available, what the numbers show, and how important swing states are. that is always a moving target. we are constantly getting new information. you will see how the numbers shift and change as the election gets closer. generally, these states are the tightest and could go either way. >> states in play -- take us through a couple. guest: a lot are familiar states that have been a bellwether in past elections. we still see florida and ohio as among the most coveted states. they have a lot of electoral votes and are still very close. florida, at this point, looks to be about hide. you see that florida has 29 electoral votes. if you look at barack obama at

251, 270 is the magic number. if barack obama wins in florida, that would put him over the top. that would give him more than the 270 needed to win. florida and ohio are coveted. virginia is also very close, as are north carolina and colorado. >> follow this on our video library at c-span.org. we take you to ohio university, the oval, the center's student area. president barack obama is arriving to speak to students. we will have live coverage, here on c-span. ♪ ♪ >> hello, bukeyes -- buckeyes!

oh -- o.h.! o.h.! can everyone please give a round of applause for that great introduction? it is good to see my friend and one of the finest u.s. senators, your senator, sharon brown -- sherrod brown. your next congresswoman is here. will.i.am is in the house, a man who sometimes looks like he has been to the outer space. i am so grateful. he has been such a great friend for a long time. we also have a man who has actually been to the outer space, and john glenn, in the house.

before i begin, i have a question for you. are you registered to vote? because if you are not today, it is the last day you can register. i know it is easy to procrastinate in college. i procrastinated a lot. but we have made it easy. you go to vote.barackobama.com to register yourself. you have until 9:00 p.m. tonight. no excuses. i know you guys are up at 9:00 p.m. as you get older, you start thinking of sleeping around 9:00 p.m., but you are just getting started. if you are registered, you can vote right now, today. just go to the website to find out where, all right? all right.

even better, grab your friends. cravaack everybody in your -- grab everybody in your dorm. grab your fraternity or sorority. grab a will and -- grab w ill.i.am and get on a bus around the corner. you can get there and back. go vote today. what do you think? we need you fired up. i love you back, but i need you voting. i need you fired up. i need you ready to go to vote. this because we have some work to do. we have got an election, to win. everything that we fought for in 2008 is on the line in 2012, and i need your help to finish what we started.

four years ago -- four years ago, i told you i would end the war in iraq, and we did. i said i would end the war in afghanistan, and we are. i said we would refocus on the people who attacked us on 9/11, and today osama bin laden is dead. four years ago, i promise to cut taxes for middle-class families, and we have, by $3,600. of promised to cut taxes for small business owners, and we have 18 times. we got back every dime we used to rescue the banks, and we passed a law, to the end taxpayer-funded wall street bailouts permanently. we passed health care reform, also known as obamacare, because i do care. i do not want insurance companies, jerking you around anymore. i do not suit him -- do not want

somebody without health care because they have a pre-existing condition. we repealed "don't ask, don't tell," as i promised him we would. today, he no outstanding soldier, marine, sailor, here man -- airman, none of them will be kicked out of the military because of who they are and who they love. when you think about ohio, and when governor romney said that we should let the auto industry go bankrupt -- we said, we are not going to take your advice. do not boo. vote. we reinvented a diving auto industry that supplies one in eight ohio jobs and has come roaring back to the top of the world. four years after the worst

economic crisis of our lifetimes, our businesses have created more than 5 million new jobs. friday, we found out the unemployment rate has fallen from as high as 10% to as low as 7.8%. manufacturing is coming back to america. home values are back on the rise. we are not there yet. we still have too many americans looking for work, and families who cannot pay the bills. too many homes still under water. to many young people burdened by too much debt after, they graduate. if there is one thing i know, it is this. we have come too far to turn back now. the american people have worked too hard. the last thing we can afford to do right now is to go back to the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. i cannot allow that to happen. i will not allow it to happen. that is why i am running for a

second term as president of the united states. [applause] crowd: four more years! >> you know, over the last four years, i have seen a lot of folks hurt. i have seen a lot of struggle. and i am not going to make -- i am not going to have us go back to another round of top-down economics. but that is what my opponent is offering. the centerpiece of governor plan, favorsomic the wealthiest americans. he has been pitching the plan an entire year. he stood up on stage in a primary debate and proudly declared his tax cuts would include the top 1%.

most of the economists that crunched the numbers said paying for the tax plan either means blowing up the deficit or raising taxes on middle-class families. one or the other. pick your poison. last week, mitt romney said, there is no addition to the deficit with my tax plan. if he says it is not true, then it is not true. ok. it is true that it is not going to add to the deficit, that leaves only one option. that is asking middle-class families to foot the bill by getting rid of the deductions for owning a home, raising kids, or sending them to college. as it turned out, most folks do not like that idea either. just last week, on stage, governor romney decided that instead of changing his plan, he would pretended did not exist. what $5 trillion tax cut?

i do not know anything about that tax cut. pay no attention to the tax cut under the carpet, behind the curtain. when he was asked how he would cut the deficit, he said he could make the math work by eliminating local public funding for pbs. by the way, this is not new. this is what he has been saying every time he is asked a question. we can cut out pbs. for all you moms and kids out there, do not worry. somebody is finally getting tough on big bird. who knew that he was driving our deficit? we are going after that. he has decided we are going after big bird. elmo is making a run for the border. the governor romney once wall street who run wild, but he is

going -- if governor romney wants wall street to run wild, but he is going to bring down the hammer on "sesame street." we cannot afford another round of tax cuts for the wealthy. we cannot afford to roll back regulations on banks and insurance companies. we cannot got our investments on education, clean energy, research, technology. that is not a plan to grow the economy. that is not change. we have been there. we have tried that. we are not going back. we are moving forward. that is why i am running for a second term as president of the united states. [applause] look -- we have got a different view about how you bring jobs and prosperity to america. the strong economy does not trickle down from the top.

it grows from a thriving middle- class, and folks working hard to get into the middle-class. i think it is time our tax code stopped rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas. let us reward small businesses and manufacturing here in ohio, products made in america. that is the choice in this election. i believe we can create more jobs by controlling more of our own energy. after 30 years of inaction, we raised fuel standards. by the middle of the next decade, your cars and trucks would go twice as far on a gallon of gas. today, the u.s. is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in two decades. it is time to move forward. my plan would cut our oil imports in half, and invest in the clean energy creating thousands of jobs across ohio and america right now. not just oil and natural gas, but solar, wind, clean coal,

fuel efficient factories, and fuel efficient cars. i am not going to let the oil companies collect another $4 billion him and corporate welfare every year. i am not going to let china win the race for clear energy technology. i want to see that developed by students and scientists here in columbus, by workers across ohio, by patriots in the united states. my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is eating our planet, because climate change is not a hoax. look around. it is not a joke. it is a threat to your future. we need to make sure that we meet the moment. that is why i am running. i believe we should have the best education system in the world, bar none. i would not be here if it were not for the education i was able to receive. i did not come from wealth or

fame, and i got a great vacation, because that is what this country does. it was the gateway of opportunity for michelle. it is the opportunity for many of you. we can cut education to pay for tax cuts. that is what paul ryan proposes. do not boo. vote. or we can do what i propose -- recruit 100,000 math and science teachers, focus on early childhood education, provide job training for 2 million workers at community colleges, cut the growth of tuition costs in half, so you guys are not loaded up with that when you graduate. -- debt when you graduate. that is something we can do. i do not just talk the talk. i walk the block.

-- walk the walk. under the student loan program, we cut out the middleman and gave the money directly to students. across the country, here we are getting better deals on programs, keeping rates low -- on pell grants, keeping rates low. we can meet these goals together. you can choose a better future for america. i want to use the money we are saving for ending the war is in iraq and afghanistan and use that to pay down our debt, but also put people to work rebuilding our roads and our bridges. governor romney said it was tragic to end the war in iraq. i disagree. i think bringing our troops home to their families was the right thing to do. if he had gotten his way, those troops would still be there. in his speech yesterday, he double down on that belief. he said, "ending that war was a

mistake." after nine years of war, more than $1 trillion in spending, extraordinary sacrifices by men and women in uniform and their families, he said we should still have troops on the ground in iraq. you cannot turn a page on the failed policies of the past if you are promising to repeat them. we cannot go back to a foreign policy that gets us into wars with no plan to endorse them. we are moving forward, not going back. every pro-american that wears the uniform of this country should know, as long as i am your commander in chief, we will sustain the strongest army the world has ever known. and when our troops take off their uniforms, we will serve them, because nobody who has served this country should have to fight for a job or a roof over their heads when they come home. finally, i will cut the deficit

by $4 trillion over the next 10 years. i have already worked with republicans and democrats to cut $1 trillion in spending. i am ready to do more. but we cannot just cut our way to prosperity. we are not lead to get this done unless we ask of the high-income households to pay income tax. that is what was in place when bill clinton was president and our economy had the biggest surplus in history, and created a lot of millionaires. governor romney said it is fair that he pays a lower tax rate and a teacher or autoworker who makes $50,000. he is wrong. i refuse to ask middle-class families to give up their deductions for having a home or raising a kid, just to pay for another millionaire's tax cut. i refuse to pay for that tax cut by asking students to pay more for college, taking kids out of

head start programs, or eliminating health care for millions of americans who are poor or disabled or elderly. that is the choice we face in this election. that is what the election comes down to. over and over, we have been told by governor romney, congressman ryan, and their allies in congress, that unless government can do everything, they should do almost nothing. if you cannot afford health insurance, and do not get sick. if a country releases air pollution, that is the price of progress. if you cannot afford to go to college, just borrow money from your parents. you know what? that is not who we are. that is not what this country is about. in america, we believe we are in this together. america is not about what can be done for us. it is about what can be done by us together, as one nation and as one people. [applause]

and that is what we understood in 2008. you know, that was an amazing experience for me, obviously, that election. i said then, and i still believe now, it was not about me. it is about you. you are the reason and mother in cincinnati does not have to worry about the company the ninth person coverage because he got sick. you are the reason a factory worker who lost his job is back on the assembly line, building the best cars in the world. you are the reason a young man whose mother worked three jobs can afford to go to the ohio state university. that happened because of you. you are the reason i young immigrant who grew up here, went to school here, and pledged allegiance to our flag, will not be deported from the only country she has ever been

called -- she has ever called home. people will not be kicked out of the military because of who they love. families can say to loved ones who served so bravely, welcome home. you did that. if you buy into the cynicism that says change is not possible, that the best we can do is more tax cuts for folks at the top, and the rest of you folks have to figure it out -- if you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, other voices fill the difference -- fill the gap. they are lobbyists and those making it harder for you to vote. the washington politicians who want to tell women what they are doing when it comes to health care choices, when women are perfectly capable of making those choices themselves -- that is what is a stake.

-- at stake. only you have the power to move us forward. we have always said that real change takes time. more than one year. more than one term. more than one president. more than one party. it cannot happen if you are somebody who writes off half the nation before you even took office. in 2008, 47% of the country did not vote for me. but on the night of the election, i said to those americans, i may not have won your voice -- one your vote, but i hear voices and need your help. i will be your president too. i can tell you, i will be there no matter what. i will be fighting for you no matter what. i am not fighting for a democratic or republican jobs. i am fighting to create american

jobs. i am not fighting for schools in red states or blue states. i am fighting to improve schools in the united states. the values we are fighting for do not belong to one group. they are not black or white or gay or straight or disabled or not disabled. they are american values. they belong to all of us. i am absolutely positive that we are not as divided as our politics suggest. i still believe we have more in common and our pundits tell us. i still believe in you. i am asking you to keep believing in me. ohio, i am asking for your vote. if you are willing to work with me and make the phone calls for me, we will win franklin county again. we will win ohio again. we will win this election again. we will finish what we started. we will remind the world why the united states of america is the

greatest nation on earth. thank you. let's go, he blew -- go, blue. let us win this election. [applause] ♪ ♪ ["only in america," brooks and dunn]

>> this is the last day to a district to vote in ohio. president obama speaking to students in ohio state university in columbus. the election is four weeks away. we are opening up our phone lines to get your thoughts on

what you heard of the state of the race. the numbers to use are on your screen. make sure that you knew your television or radio when you call in. if you are calling in on the radio, welcome. c-span radio launched 50 years ago today. it is 90.4 fm in the washington area. let us get to our first caller, in the nation's capital, on our democrats line. martina, are you there? >> i am here. i am all for president obama. i think everything he promised us in 2008 is coming to pass now.

i do believe that mitt is going to get rid of a lot of jobs. big bird is just the start. you may be next. guest: -- host: just so you know, c-span is not funded by tax dollars. we are funded by the cable industry. on our independent line -- caller: we will go forward. we will do that. guest: who are you going to vote for? host: president barack obama. -- host: who are you going to vote for? caller: president barack obama. caller: i am a republican. i can tell, when you look in his

eye, that he means everything he says. i am going to vote for barack obama. i am a republican, but i like what he stands for. host: a call from new york. caller: i would like to have hit a recount from this president. no person in the united states is more powerful than his job. in russia, the united states [indiscernible] he does not understand what is happening in the united states. he does not understand what russia [indiscernible] i think this president -- i

believe he is from russia, not president for the united states. host: we will hear mitt romney's views on foreign policy. we will show that to you in another 10 minutes or so. your thoughts on the race so far, two are democrats line. -- to our democrats' line. caller: i am a political psychoanalyst from the bureau from california. i just called the dnc and told them i wanted to make a point. i think the president does not know, internally, that there are things going on that he does not know about. i told them that -- host: what specifically?

what kind of things? caller: a lot of people think the president is no more than a postal mail clerk. he needs to tell the people in the debates that he is on top of what is going on internally. i told the dnc to tell him that he needs to tell the people that he knows what he is doing. i kind of think that he thinks everything is going smoothes, -- smooth, when it may not be. he needs to tell the people that he knows what he is doing. president nixon said, "i am the president, and what i say goes." host: president obama would get

another turn at a debate. the next one a week from tonight, on long island. it will be a town hall format, the second of three debates. the final one is coming up on monday, the 22nd. the will focus on foreign policy. once again, virginia, our independent line. caller: how are you? the company i work for just got a new office "results. $700 million, yet there is a hiring freese. -- freeze. what i think needs to happen to build up the middle class is to limit these guys and how much money they are able to profit and share with wall street. companies that make $700 million or more should give back to their employees. host: what kind of company is

it? caller: i do not want to say too much for fear of losing my job, but i am in the health-care industry. host: president obama, wrapping up with students at ohio state university. both candidates are in the state today, the last day for voter registration. after this rally, a number of students will be boarding buses to go register to vote. it is the final day to do that. mitt romney is campaigning. he was in iowa earlier. later this evening, he will have the rally in ohio. he spends time in the state tomorrow. chicago is next. tony is there on our democratic line. caller: how are you? hello? they turn me off. host: we are not cut you off. please go ahead. caller: i watched the debate

between mitt romney and president obama. mitt romney took over the debate. the moderator have no control over him whatsoever. it was almost like he was on some type of drug. i have fan voting for a very long time. i vote for my parents, but could not vote. i see no substance whatsoever coming out of romney's mouth. we have two wars that have not been paid for. he wants to lead us back into another war. are people paying attention? host: what can president obama do, in your view, to win the next debate? caller: he has to be a little more open. what happened was, he saw a man standing over there, not giving him an opportunity. was he supposed to come out and act ugly as president of the

united states, when romney took it over with all the lies he has been telling? host: thank you for your call. you saw the president on stage at the oval at ohio state university. the c-span campaign 2012 bus has been touring the state. we did "the washington journal" from ohio state univ. earlier this week. we spent a lot of time talking to students on their views on politics. here are a couple of them, with video tweets. [video clip] >> i was most influenced by my dad. we like to talk about politics, watch the debates, and talk through them. and the >> i am concerned about supreme court -- >> i am the

most concerned about supreme court nominations. i am worried about breaux -- roe v. wade. >> i learned a lot from the teacher of my h-p history class. i really admired him. >> if there is something to help us with our loans, i do not know. that is important to me. host: you can see more video online. a couple of use of ohio. this is from "politico." they say ohio is obama country. the president's spokeswoman says --

another view from "the new york times." back to calls. new york is next, on our republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. watching this speech today, we have heard it over and over again. i continue to doubt the truthfulness of the president of the united states. he says he is going to cut the deficit by $4 trillion in the next four years. i do not know how he is going to do that. he wants to cut the cost of tuition to colleges in half. i do not know how you are going to do that. there are other issues that we keep hearing this is going to happen, but do not hear specific

plans or how he is calling to achieve that. another point is that he has had for years to do all these things, and he sounds like a new candidate, not a president who has been in office, who is going to continue good plans. host: you are supporting mitt romney? caller: at this point, yes. host: you think he has come up with specific plans? caller: there has been a little more detail, particularly from paul ryan. i do think both sides could get more specific in how they are going to achieve their goals and plans for america. host: paul ryan is spending the last few days in florida, preparing for the vice- presidential debate, coming up on wednesday night. i am sorry -- thursday night. we will have live coverage on c-

span. joe biden is preparing in his home state of delaware. the debate is at 9:00 eastern. back to calls. ron ron is in oklahoma. he is on our republican line. caller: i wanted to comment that when obama got into office, he got no leadership experience. he never voted in the senate. he rode the fence on both wars. he never cast a vote for or against on either were. he started his campaign as soon as he hit a house. he never did do anything. he had zero experience on being in the political field. he has not shown any leadership since. he leaves very strong towards withalistic society ways, the national health care.

i believe he wants to take away our gun rights and hand them over to the u.n. for them to control, and to have them be in control of our constitutional laws. his moral fiber as a parent and a husband and a father of two children -- his moral fiber, he compromises to the gay community for votes. no husband or father would ever been his moral code to say it is ok for gays to be married to one another. if you tear down the moral fiber of this country, you tear down god's protection as well. why do you think we have droughts and hurricanes and tornadoes growing in a larger scale? host: we have a couple more calls. president obama, just a few minutes ago, in ohio.

mitt romney, also in ohio. meanwhile, ohio congressman and speaker of the house john boehner has been in new hampshire, talking about efforts on the democratic side to win back the house. [video clip] >> nancy pelosi is working hard. even though they want 65 seats -- even though we have won 65 seats from the democrats, she only has to get where 25 seats to get my job but the only way she is going to get the devil is to pry it out of my cold dead hands -- the gavel is to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. host: i would you think things stand? caller: i just decided to go

with president obama. mitt romney is lying. host: you just made up your mind today? caller: i am going to go with president obama. he cares about people and understand what people are going for. mitt romney is a rich man who has no idea. host: how did you vote the last time? caller: i voted for obama last time, but i thought i would give mitt romney a look. i have been watching the news, and mitt romney has done too many lies. lies are not good. we need somebody honest. i am going with obama. caller: i watched the debate. this is the reason i am voting again for barack obama. he did not take the time everybody was saying on the cable newscasts -- he is not

that type of man. he does not have that in his heart. he explains what he would do for america. everybody wanted him to get on mitt romney. i want him to tell me what he is going to do for me. i am not prejudiced. for the last 50 years, i voted for white people, and i did not have a problem with that. now that he is trying to get the respect for other countries, with this country not even wanting people of color to be in the white house -- that is what i am looking at. he is looking to bring everybody together and stop all of that attacking and that kind of stuff. just tell us what you are going to do. you do not need to say, what about the 47%? i already know about that. host: on our independent line,

please make sure you knew your television. you get the last word this evening. caller: is mitt romney still the governor of massachusetts? host: he is not still the governor of massachusetts. caller: obama talks to him like he is still the governor. he should be styled as the former governor. he is not the governor. everybody thinks he is still the governor of massachusetts, but he is not. host: it is one of those honorific titles that stays with you. caller: ex-governor sounds better, like ex-president. host: thank you for your calls. more political coverage, coming up. we will take you to west virginia for the governors' debate. this is a rematch from 2010, when the had a special election, because joe manchin was elected

to the u.s. senate. and the vice president's debate is coming up on thursday night. we will have coverage coming up at 7:00. it is a 90 minute debate. we will follow that with your phone calls and more. here is how things stand with the presidential debate. the next one is a week from today, on long island. that will be a town hall format. the last debate will be on monday the 22nd, in florida. yesterday, mitt romney spoke about foreign policy, and laid out some of his foreign-policy principles. here is a tweet that says he discussed president obama's hope strategy. who confined that speech on our video library. -- you can find that speech on

our video library. host: susan glasser is editor in chief at foreign-policy. guest: thanks for having me. host: did you hear anything new from mitt romney yesterday? guest: this was his third foreign policy speech, but people are paying a lot more attention now. it was an important moment for him. when he's trying to do, he's not outlining how he would run the country or how he would protect america around the world so much as he's continuing to try to draw contrasts between him and obama. i am reminded of the old line -- campaigns are about accentuating small differences. that is what we saw yesterday. host: do you sense a romney doctrine or philosophy emerging? guest: romney has been something of a mystery when it comes to foreign policy until now. we are not entirely clear.

it's not the subject matter he feels the most comfortable with. hise's a debate inside campaign when it comes to foreign-policy. he's a one-man big tent in his campaign. he has people in his campaign who worked for the bush administration and representatives of the group of republicans who says fix our problems here at home, as well as liberal internationalists. he has all of those folks competing for his ear on foreign policy. you would have seen different factions in his speech yesterday. clearly, he's coming down more on the side of the second part of the bush administration, which is to say he is embracing the idea there's a role for american values and a freedom agenda in the world. he's trying to do so while avoiding promising to send american troops to new foreign military adventures.

so it's a fine line. host: if you would like to join the conversation about foreign policy and campaign 2012, here are the numbers to call -- let's listen to mitt romney yesterday outlining some of his foreign-policy ideas in virginia. [video clip] >> the president is fond of saying that the tide of war is receding. i want to believe him as much as anyone else. but when we look at the middle east today with iran closer than ever to nuclear weapons capability, with the conflict in serious threatening to -- syria threatening to destabilize the region, and with violent extremists on the march, and with an american ambassador and three others dead likely at the hands of all, the affiliate's, it's clear the affiliates,aeda

it's clear the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office. i know the president hopes for a safer, fear, and more prosperous middle east aligned with us. i share that hope. but hope is not a strategy. we cannot support our friends and defeat our energy -- our enemies in the middle east when our words are not backed up by deeds, when our defense spending is being deeply cut off, when we have no trade agenda to speak of, and the perception of our strategy is not one of partnership but of passivity. host: that was mitt romney yesterday. it garnered a headline in "usa today" -- how much of the speech was against president obama and what he's done and how much of it was laying on his own trajectory and agenda? guest: mostly in his role as a challenger, this is about a critique of the obama foreign- policy. that's a very common tactic by challengers.

there were some good lines. he talked about hope is not a strategy. he's trying to emphasize his critique of obama as leading from behind, which was from an unnamed administration official at the end of a 8000 word new yorker magazine piece last year. it has become a staple of republican critics of the president's foreign-policy. there are some real differences between obama and romney when it comes to foreign policy. those are substantive. romney has called a rush of the -- called russia the number one geopolitical foe of the u.s. promised to the surprise even of his own advisers. he has continued to emphasize that and to say that vladimir putin will get nothing from me. that is a real difference. barack obama has emphasized as one of his major foreign-policy accomplishments a reset with russia that has enabled us to get more done, whether it is sending supplies into afghanistan through the northern route, which has become

a much more significant issue as there have been problems with pakistan that made it difficult for us to get in and out, or having a new nuclear arms limitation agreement with russia. so that's a substantive difference. there are others as well. when it comes to some of the core middle east issues, how to stop iran from getting a nuclear weapon or what it is that mitt romney would do differently from obama when it comes to encouraging the growth of democracy in some post-arab spring countries, it's not clear. pretty hard to tell aside from rhetoric what he would do different. host: wilie joins us from illinois, democratic line. caller: how are you? yes, i definitely agree with the lady talking about the foreign policy issue.

i think mitt romney is an opportunist. he went overseas and is respected our allies. -- disrepected all of our allies. he is an opportunist. he kisses up to benjamin netanyahu on foreign-policy. i think obama is steadfast. he talked to benjamin netanyahu on the phone for hours. it's not like he has been dodging him. he does not is up to foreign -- does not kiss up to foreign leaders. the talks to them like a leader. in the debate, obama held his head up high and did not have his head down like everybody said he did. as far as the media, i don't think the real voters actually thought that. i think a lot of people just followed what the media was saying as far as what he was talking about -- i mean what the media was talking about when they said obama did not hold his head up high.

i think he was very presidential and very calm. i think. mitt romney think. -- i think mitt romney was desperate. host: we will hear the candidates debate on policy in the coming weeks. can you reflect on the earlier part of what he was saying? guest: i think romney did make a trip this summer to europe and israel. he went to london where he famously criticized the preparations for the london olympics games. he went to poland. he went to israel. democrats have tried to emphasize what they see as romney's pension for gaffes. he's not comfortable with the subject of foreign policy and has seemed undiplomatic in foreign affairs initially. at the same time, you see a somewhat inconsistent critique

when it comes due romney and what the democrats are saying about him. they call him gaffe prone and flip-floping. on the other hand, they say there's no real difference between him and obama on major issues that count. yet they suggest he's going to be the second coming of the first bush administration. i think you have almost every possible critique being made on mitt romney right now when it comes to foreign policy, in part because his views are still his views are still not known and it is not clear what kind of foreign policy president he would be. host: this is an obama at tv ad speaking about the issues you brought out. [video clip] >> i am barack obama and i approve this message.

>> "the new york times" said aat romney's response showed lack of character. if this is how he handles the world now, think of what he might do as president. host: susan glasser, are people paying attention to the foreign policy of these candidates? guest: some of this can be taken with a grain of salt. before the convention, 4% of americans said foreign policy would be the top issue. in the last few weeks, the number has gone up slightly, as a result of the tragic attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, where we are in afghanistan, and exactly what our position is in the new

middle east after the arab spring. this is not necessarily going to be the decisive issue. it is important to remember that. host: california. republican line. caller: good morning. i have a couple of questions. when you just mentioned romney speaking about the ambassador in libya, how come nobody is asking that -- talking about how they asked for security? nobody is held responsible. you know who made the decisions not to send the troops. anyone working for our

government needs to have protection, and that is an abject failure and that should be a big thing in this election. i do not hear you speaking about that. host: let's look at mitt romney's comments just in virginia. [video clip] >> the attacks on america should not be seen as random act. they are a larger struggle that is played out over the middle east, a region that is in the midst of the most profound upheaval in a century. the fault lines of this struggle can be seen in benghazi. the attack on our consulate on september 11, 2012, was likely the work of forces affiliated with those that affect our homeland on september 11, 2001. the latest result can not be

blamed on a reprehensible video, despite the administration's attempts to convince us of that. the administration has finally conceded these attacks were the deliver work of terrorists they use violence to impose their ideology on others and who seek to wage perpetual war on the west. guest: glasser. guest: it is interesting. on the one hand, mitt romney was criticized for his initial response to the tragic killings, jumping into a partisan critique of obama in the midst of the event. then he backed off. yesterday, he was critical, but not using the same tone and he did the project anything he would do differently with regards to what is an unstable situation in libya today. i think the caller reflects an

important point of view that is out there and both obama and romney need to address, which is national security is really what americans care about. they might be less concerned about the rating of a new constitution in tunisia, although that is important in the new middle east, but they are concerned if the instability gives rise to new states that allow al-qaida and philips to -- or affliates to flourish. that is what has happened in parts of libya. they do not have central government control over all of the territory, and that is part of why you saw this terrible tragedy. on the specifics, there is an investigation under way by the fbi and the state department has launched what it calls an official accountability review

board. we do not have the full picture of what actually happened, but there is no question that this is a major tragedy. it is the first time in more than two decades that the u.s. has lost an investor in a situation like this. has lost an ambassador in a situation like this. host: susan glasser is editor in chief at "foreign policy magazine. indiana. chris. independent line. caller: jobs are going to be the most important thing in the election, but foreign policy will be important. as far as governor romney not pointing of the specificity of what he would do differently, i disagree. in his speech he pointed out a lot of things that he would do differently. he strongly backs israel.

more money for the military. opposing various things. it was a vast contrast to the president. as far as foreign policy concerns respecting the election, you know, the president's policies have not seemed to have worked in the middle east. they have gotten worse over there, to me, and i am independent, so i am not thinking his strong point is foreign policy, which some people do think because of the killing of osama bin laden, and in my opinion any sitting president would have taken that action. i am glad president obama did, and he deserves credit, but no matter who would have been president they would have done that. guest: there is a significant difference on military spending between obama and romney, and when that was pointed out

yesterday. obama said it would be catastrophic. it is important to note that we are not actually talking about cuts to existing budgets and the scale of military spending is so vast that when he talks about the obama cuts he is talking about going back to the 2006 levels of spending when i do not think many people thought there was a dangerously low level of spending. the u.s. military currently spends something more than 40% of the entire world military spending. host: "the washington post" looks at foreign-policy and

defense spending. they also looked at a kaiser health tracking poll from last month, thinking ahead to the elections, how important military spending will be. 30% said extremely important. 37% said very important. 21%, somewhat important, 11%, less important. it's as president obama announced plans for a leaner military. the new military strategy also emphasizes widening the u.s. security presence in asia pacific region. mitt romney said he would

increase active duty personnel by 100,000 troops, reinvesting weapons systems, and has pledged to step up the navy's shipbuilding rate. let's take a listen to comments. this is mitt romney's take on middle eastern policy from president obama. [video clip] >> america has a strong history of strong, principled, global leadership. this has been written by patriots from both party. this is america at its best, and the measure by which we measure every president. unfortunately, this president's policies have not been equal to our best examples of world leadership, and nowhere is this more evident than in the middle east. i want to be clear.

the blame for the murder of our people in libya and the attacks on our embassy and other countries lies solely with those that brought them about, and no one else, but it is our responsibility and the responsibility of the president to shape history, not to read from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events. that is unfortunately where we find ourselves in the middle east under president obama. host: that was mitt romney in virginia, outlining his foreign policy strategy. susan glasser, realistically, what can mitt romney do differently? guest: if you listen to his speech, take it at face value, he is suggesting a much more muscular, assertive military with the idea that he will get out there and tell people what to do.

my question is what happens when they say now? -- no. that is when you would get to understand what kind of tactician mitt romney is. what will he do when his effort to swagger and bring the american big stick does not necessarily produce the results that he wants? obama has had to dramatically, as did george w. bush and bill clinton before him. campaigns are about one vision of the world that is critical of their opponent, whether it is the incumbent or the previous president. for example, george w. bush on russia said bill clinton was wrong, he personalize our relationship, invested too much in boris yeltsin, and that is a disaster. i will be a realist, thinking

about america's national interest, and what did he do? he got into office, met with vladimir putin, looked into his eyes, and famously saw his soul, so people pivot. events collide. things change. barack obama said he would negotiate with our enemies and our friends, and outlined a new policy of engagement to iran and north korea. those things did not happen. reality did not permit it. the record is running on would have astonished many supporters of barack obama in 2008. host: susan glasser is the editor in chief of "foreign policy magazine." here's a question from tony on twitter. the obama reset with russia, bush looking into platooned's

soul neither worked well. this is a part of the region that you know well. guest: we pay a lot of attention to russia. we were there during vladimir putin's first term in office, so we have seen the shaping of what has become today's russia. what is interesting is that presidents come in and they often talk about reinventing russian policy, but there is the consistency in that russian and u.s. national interests tend to dominate. vladimir putin criticized secretary of state hillary clinton, that she was interfering with the election, the americans were trying to overthrow him, so there has been a chilling of the

relationship compared with the friendly relationship president obama had with dmitry medvedev. that being said, it is hard to imagine a major shift. clearly, the russians have listened to mitt romney's rhetoric about them in the number one geopolitical foe, and a chill would be in sight, but it is in their interest, for example, to continue to cooperate with the united states when it comes to allowing the number distribution network to -- northern distribution network to deliver supplies into afghanistan. it is not because they like the united states, but it is because afghanistan is it terrible problem practically at the borders of russia. it is a major source of drugs that flow through central asia and into russia. that heroin is a plague on central asia and russia.

host: kathleen, indiana, and democrats line. good morning. caller: the morning. -- good morning. my head is spinning. i saw romney's speech yesterday, and i just do not understand, between the debate and this speech yesterday, that people do not understand what a phony, liar, opportunist he is. i have a nephew that is a marine. he did a tory in iraq. -- tour in iraq. god bless him, he fought for our country. romney and ryan, first off, let's get something clear here once and for all, as far as the

sequestered cuts go, it is not obama's thing, okay? it was congress and paul ryan's thing because they were too immature to act like grown-ups and make a deal, ok? obama had nothing to do with it. it was paul ryan and congress. guest: i do think that the one of the issues that people will be basing their vote on is the question of leadership at large and that is why you heard a lot about leadership from mitt romney and what kind of role obama is projecting and by extension what he is doing at home in guiding in shaping how we use natural resources. although the polls might not registered significance to a particular foreign policy issue, when it comes to the broader question of leadership,

that is part of what people will be casting their vote on. there is an opportunity, as the mitt romney team has identified, to suggest criticism of president obama as a leader. host: president obama was at a fund-raiser in california last night. [video clip] >> governor romney has a different view. he said it was tragic to end the war in iraq, and doubled down on that today. he said it was a mistake and i disagree. bringing our troops home was the right thing to do. [applause] every brave american who wears the uniform of this country should know that as long as i am commander-in-chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known. when our troops to takeoff their uniform, we will serve them as well as they have served us, because nobody who have

fought for us should have to fight for a job or a roof over their head when they come home. host: president obama on the campaign trail. susan glasser. guest: his analysis of romney's speech is not quite fair. mitt romney was criticizing obama for not being able to come to an agreement with the iraqi government on a continuing u.s. military arrangement. he was not saying let's keep fighting in iraq indefinitely. that being said, it clearly is a strong point for obama that he has managed to pull troops out of iraq, announced the withdrawal timeline for afghanistan. that is broadly supported by americans across the political spectrum, and that is why mitt romney is engaging in a delicate tightrope walk that i referred to.

he wants to critique obama for not having a muscular enough view of american power without going into suggesting that he will use this gold-plated military that we are talking about in all sorts of different situations. mitt romney has not talked about afghanistan much because the bottom line is that even within his own party americans are pretty sick of a decade of war and support of of the policies obama has pursued to to me to -- end those conflicts. host: from twitter -- governor romney, i'd temper my remarks on the u.s. strong principal global leadership. you will not find universal agreement. you can share your opinions on twitter and we can share it on the air. larry. georgia. democrats line.

how are you? caller: sleepy. host: well, wake up. caller: first, mitt romney is the most war-mongering mormon that i ever met. i do not know what he wants to spend so much money on the military. i was in the military. i'm retired. we do not need that much money going into the military. we wasted and used more money than you could imagine. trust me. secondly, i do not think these skirmishes over in the middle east area and in africa have anything to do with the american people as far as us knowing what is going on. too much information and false information is what starts the 9/11 was a hoax thing. the republican party needs to pipe down because they make us look like idiots on a global scale. guest: that is an interesting

perspective for someone that surge in the military. -- served in the military. one issue the democrats have used to some effect is that romney's proposed increases in defense spending are not supported by the military. he is in some cases asking for spending the military has not asked for. the defense budget is the only part of the budget that comes off of capitol hill with more money in it than the rest of the budget. but there is often seen an advantage in boosting military spending. host: from twitter -- president obama does not seem to realize the the military strongly supporting mitt romney. obama is out of touch. you'll be watching to see how military members react this

election season. guest: my guess is president obama is well aware. host: republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say that i really do not like this domination. this is my opinion of what i feel is going on. when we are defending israel, we are defending designed people. -- divine people. i do not think that is a part of the religion. the christian part of obama's history, they made him to announce that. -- denounce that. i know that that is what he believes in. i was christian and i converted to islam because it is more protective of the traditional roles of the father and mother at home. i think that is a positive situation for democracy, taking

with enough of welfare, and we -- taking off of welfare, and we do not have the game in prison situation that we would have here. israel, i do not think we should follow their lead because i think the world looks at how americans get along with each other, not at how israel gets along with america, and their approach in religion is an eye for an eye, and not following christian beliefs. we need to make our own decisions, even though israel says their point to follow their own test. i think they believe they are defined people, and i think that -- divine people, and i think that is a religious falsehood. americans do not have to follow the abraham was for all people. he never said the jewish people

were better than any other race on the earth. guest: there is a lot that comes into play when it comes to the middle east, and the question of u.s. support for israel has been criticized as part of this campaign, but there is a broad political consensus across the two parties in the united states when it comes to supporting israel, and in particular a determination to come up with a unified approach to the challenge of stopping iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. why are we united in that? and the iranians have said they wished to wipe israel from the face of the map, and that is the next potential threat, threatening the very existence of the jewish state in the middle east.

the bottom line is that it is a tough neighborhood that they live in, but this is a threat that is far greater than anything they have faced before. you will not see any significant difference between leading democrats and republicans when it comes to that, and of course there is a conservative leader in israel right now. he grew up in the united states. benjamin netanyahu. he said he was born speaking republican. clearly, he is much closer politically to the republicans in the united states and mitt romney has vowed to let there be daylight between the position of the united states and israel, thickly when it comes to the strike on iranian facilities. where you have a difference his tactics, the most effective way of a military strike. what if it leads to a broader war? what if it leads only to

putting off the iranian nuclear program by one year or two? what did you accomplish? those are the factors that are being debated and very vigorously behind closed doors when it comes to threats, but in a broad sense, the democrats and republicans will not shift away from that special relationship between israel and the united states. host: the op-ed features of the papers are looking at the mitt romney speech, with "the washington post" saying, "foreign policy echo." one of our viewers on twitter policy sounds a

lot like obama's. one of our viewers on twitter says there is not much difference. do you see much daylight between the two? guest: certainly, a more muscular rhetoric has been the theme of romney, campaigning on the notion of american greatness, and accusing president obama of not being a believer of exceptionalism and a special destiny of america in world history. to many, that seems to be a silly exercise of political chest-beating. in reality there could be real differences, but i do not think this campaign or yesterday's speech has fleshed out what they will do. host: robert, new london, connecticut. good morning. independent. caller: i studied for a policy -- foreign policy for a long time, and what i see on television are attack ads, misinformation.

i served in the military. i went in in 1982. i was in new haven, connecticut, with my good friend stanley teller, who runs a website called the struggle and is well-known. interviews top key players. i was down there not celebrating, but making people aware of the massacre that happened in beirut in 1982 when soldiers went up and murdered 7000 people, cutting their ears off, stealing their jewelry, palestinian refugees. i do not want to hear anything about this. this is making me feel unsafe. when you interview it is neo- conservatives. i never get the perspective of loving people. always someone with a motive.

host: susan glasser is the editor of "foreign policy," not a neo-con, but he says he wants to see a message of peace. are we hearing that? guest: american election years tend to be testosterone-filled when it comes to what the image that we want to project in the world is. think about the obama of 2008. would you have been surprised? i certainly was to say that he is running on a campaign where he talks about a kill list. american -- from the american drone campaigh.

-- campaign. we have assassinated american citizens inside yemen, the al- qaida-affiliated court. we waged a targeted and lethal drone war. he has counted his killing of osama bin laden as one of his main features of his foreign policy record. he is not exactly a pacifist. friday, we'll have the annual awarding of the nobel peace prize. remember when barack obama received the peace prize and gave a surprising speech when he talked about the reasons for war. it suggests that broadly speaking the americans are a militaristic people, and those are the kinds of words you're hearing even more so from mitt romney. host: susan glasser, editor in chief of "foreign policy." tell us about this cover.

who won the great recession? guest: there is a lot of talk in the campaign about the economy, and a lot of talks about the losses the last several years, the economic crisis and now we're looking to the crisis in europe and the softening of economies in china and india. we thought we should take a step back and say there has to be winners in every process of the people. -- of upheaval. call it creative destruction, if you will, there are always those that find ways to take advantage of new opportunities when forced to buy reality. we have assembled an interesting list of actual winners. you hear a lot about the losers. who has been a big winner? hollywood has turned out to be a big winner. they have gone global in a big

way. their revenues are hugely over a time while sales in north america are flat or declining, they have gone global, making inroads markets like india, which was very resistant. what is another example of a winner? mcdonald's, the quintessential american brand. their stock is up something like 500% over the last decade. why? again, globalization. they figured out you do not have to sell american-style cheese burgers and soda to kids in india or indonesia to make millions, and a customized and have gone up local with food that appeals to local consumers. mcdonald's here might be the target of our obesity campaigns, the obsession with american yuppies, but globally it still means the middle class

good life. who else profits in tough economic times? make-up companies. there is documented research to support this. the sales of the companies is astonishing. then, of course, there are political extremists, which, unfortunately, flourish in tough times. look at the rise of far right and far left parties. it is not just greece. it is here in the united states as well. host: susan glasser, thank you so much. guest: thank you for having me. >> c-span is bringing you live coverage between now and november 6. our campaign 2012 debate coverage continues tonight from west virginia about half an hour

from now. it is a debate between tomblin and maloney. that debate coverage is coming up tonight live at 7:00 p.m., it here on c-span. >> i what c-span the various congressional hearings and deliberations on public policy and also information that is put out in washington, d.c. he hosts different authors and has discussions about the different books they have written. it is a great way to get information that are in those books without having to read the books. >> he watches c-span on comcast.

c-span, brought to you as a public service by your cable television provider. >> look at what president obama did on the federal budget. nothing except barrault and spend. as a result of his abdication of leadership -- except borrow and spend. as a result of his abdication of leadership, our credit rating was downgraded for the first time in history. we laid out a four trillion dollar deficit budget. >> we have passed 1 trillion of it. these guys vote against everything. i get it if you do not like our plan. what is your plan? >> vice president joe biden and paul ryan will face off in a debate.

you can watch and engage with c- span with our live debate preview starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern, followed by the debate at 9:00 p.m., and your reaction at 1030 p.m. of our live coverage on c-span, c-span radio, and online at c- span.org. >> of west virginia governor debate will be coming up at 7:00 p.m. eastern >> starting today and every tuesday up to election day, we will be getting a lot torula scoreboards updates. today we featured the wall street electoral college map. we have a political reporter at the wall street journal. thank you for joining us. good morning. what does your map show? what are we looking at?

guest: there are different measures. you can look and see what is classified as swing states. we are down to eight. it is a small number that are up for grabs that are crucial and in play. i think it is important to understand as we talk in the election about the economy. it is important to look at the economy within each of these states. you can look at unemployment numbers. you can look at where gas prices are at. you can look at the history of the city-state's to give you a sense of where the have been in the past and where they might be headed. it gives you a good sense of which states are in playing. you can play around and make your own map and the electorial map and sketched out a different paths for each of the

candidates. host: so far you have 251 votes for president obama and 181 for mitt romney. what do you base the data and making this analysis? guest: and decided which states are in play, we look at an average of the polls. we look at the polls that are out there. you can see when you look at the data that is available but the polling numbers show. we're constantly getting new poll information. we will see the numbers continue to shift and change as the of election comes closer.

they could potentially go either way. host: states in play? guest: we still see florida and ohio among the most coveted states. the have a lot of electoral votes. they are still very close. florida at this point looks to be about tied. you can see backed it has a certain number of votes. you can see from this map that if barack obama wins in florida, that would put him over the top. that would give them more than 270 to win. virginia is also very close, as our north carolina and colorado. those are the states with the

numbers are showing at the toughest spite at this point. host: what are you watching for as we head into the final weeks? guest: we will be watching to see how the numbers move with mitt romney's debate performance. there is a lag in the polls. it might take a couple of weeks to see how the event could move the polls. we also have not seen the effects of the the new jobs numbers we got on friday with unemployment rate going down from 8% for the first time in months. as we get these numbers, we will continue to see them move. it is interesting to look at individual states. if you look at florida, florida

has relatively high unemployment at 8%. they have high foreclosure rates. they have high unemployment rates. if you look at the data, those are the things that could affect the race within a particular race. host: colleen nelson, political reporter from wall street journal. thank you. >> c-span remarks its 15th anniversary today. you can catch c-span radio in the washington and baltimore area on 90.1 fm and online at c- radio.org. you can find a c-span app for

your smart phone or and a device. >> the soviet buildup on the island of cuba. within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. the purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the western hemisphere. do you deny that the above u.s. s.r. is placing intermediate missile range missiles in cuba? yes or no? >> 13 days in october 1962. historians, scholars, filmmakers, and journalists on the anniversary of the cuban

missile crisis. "american history tv." >> both candidates spent time in ohio. mitt romney will be staying in ohio tomorrow and heading to north carolina on thursday. ohio congressman and house speaker john boehner campaign for mitt romney in late new hampshire yesterday. he told supporters that with their help, republicans will keep their hold of the house and that he plans to run again for house speaker. >> hello, everybody. [applause] i want to thank everyone for all the work that are doing.

mitt romney appreciates what you are doing. paul ryan appreciates what you are doing. frank is doing a great member as a brash new member of congress. send him back. [cheers and applause] nancy pelosi is working hard -- [crowd boos] >> even though we won 65 seats from the democrats over the last two years, i sure would love to -- she would love to win eight seats to be the house speaker. the only way she will get at is hands.present from ies it fro y -- from my hands. [cheers and applause] the most important election will

happen this november. the american people cannot handle another four years of barack obama policies. his policies have failed and made things worse. he can not run on his record. they will try to run on everything but the record. last wednesday night, i thought governor romney did a great job. [cheers and applause] it is clear to me that he worked hard during his practice rounds to make sure that he was on the ball. the president had some inaccuracies. governor romney was able to point those out respectfully and politely in light of the facts -- and lay the facts for the american people. come back to the economy and come back to the economy. why? this is an election about

get our economy to work again. mitt romney has created thousands of jobs. he understands but the big government can do to destroy jobs. having him out there with his plan and talking about his plan is exactly what needs to happen. or as i like is a comment he made the sale that night in a big way. [applause] battleground polls came out today. a 73% of the people in the battleground polls who watched the debate that mitt romney 1. -- won. 62% of the democrats who watched the debate thought that mitt romney 1. [applause]

-- won. listen, i am just a regular guy with a big job. i in alaska in the world who ought to be a member of congress, much less member of -- the head speaker. but i believe in america and being able to do what you want to do. part i was able to get into a small business and grow into a successful business. along the way, i got involved with my record organization and i ended up as speaker of the house. i got involved because it was time for people from the will will to take an active interest in the government. as a small business person, i went there to fight for a more accountable government. i do not feel different about who i am and why i am there --

to fight for a more accountable federal parliament. [applause] let me tell you why. we live in the grid is country the world has ever known. americans have the freedom to succeed and innovate and to thrive. we also have the freedom to fail. that freedom has served our country well. it has created thousands of opportunities for all of our citizens. none of us would be here if we did not have a country that provided those opportunities for us. our job, those of us elected, it is to make sure that the kids here -- look happy -- have the same opportunities that we have. that means we need to have an economy that creates opportunities for all of our citizens. god bless you.

keep up the great work. god bless america. [cheers and applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> hi. how are you? >> thank you. >> can i get a picture? >> yeah. >> thank you. >> can i get a picture? >> thank you.

[indiscernible]

>> speaker boehner. >> hi. how are you? >> [inaudible] >> hold on. >> mr. speaker, i live in new york.

thank you. >> real quick. all right. >> keep up the good work. >> thank you. >> mr. speaker, keep up the good work. >> thank you. >> west virginia governor debate, it up in about 10 minutes or so. on does tonight, the one and only the vice-presidential debate in kentucky. our live coverage will begin with the debate preview at 7:00 p.m. eastern, followed by the debate at 9:00 p.m. eastern, followed by your reaction at 10:30 p.m. eastern. you can watch it live on c-span, c-span radio, an online at c- span.org.

here is a look at the 1984 -- >> let me help you with the difference between iran and the embassy in -- lebanon. you have a terrorist action where the government opposed it. we went to lead the non -- non to give peace a chance.

>> i always resent his attitude that has to teach me about foreign policy. i was there when the foreign policy was held hostage in iran. i have seen what has happened in the past 17 months since your administration. but please do not categorize my answers either. leave that to the american people who are watching the debate. let me say further that no one has ever said those young people were killed because of the negligence of this administration and others. no one with a job to is 19 or 20 years old would ever say that -- child of 19 are 20 years older ever say that. >> as you said it was a hypothetical situation. it is the reason that we are tonight. you are running not just for vice president -- is at the experience you have in congress.

>> let me try to answer the question one more time. i think this is the fourth time i have this question. i will try to answer it again for you as clearly as i can. the question you are asking is what kind of qualifications does dan quayle have to be president? what would i do in this kind of situation? what would i do in this situation? i would make sure that the people in the cabinet and the people of the advisers of the present are called in and what talk with them and i would work with them. i would know them on a person in basis. as vice president, i would sit on the national security council. i would know them on a first person basis.

i would know them on a firsthand basis because vice-president george bush will recreate the council and i will be in charge of that. i will have day-to-day activities with all the people in government. if the unfortunate situation happens, if the situation happens, i would be prepared to carry out the responsibility of the presidency of the united states of america. i would be prepared to do that. i would be prepared not only because of my service in the congress, but because of my ability to communicate and to lead. it is not only age, but accomplishments and experience. i have a far more experience than many others that sought office of vice president of this country. i have as much experience as kennedy did when he sought the

presidency. i would be prepared in the bush administration if that unfortunate event ever occurred. >> senator? >> i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. he was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. [cheers and applause] >> please, you're calling taking time away from the candidate. >> that was uncalled for, as senator. [cheers and applause] >> your the one making the comparison, and i was one who

knew him well. frankly, i did not think the comparison was well taken. >> and the 2012 vice- presidential debate on thursday night begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. in a here is a portion of what he had to say. >> be where tax reform plan said only get specific about what top rate they want to lock in. the lower the rate that gets promised, the fewer the details that it provided about the rest of their plan. take a hard look at how this

might be accomplished. they presented an illustrative plan with the top rate of 28%. the plan did raise significant revenue. it raised taxes on middle-class families with households making around $100,000 getting a tax increase of over a thousand dollars. under the plan, high-income households would face a smaller tax increase than they would if tax cuts simply expired. the senator went a little further. he offered a plan with a few details on what would happen to expenditures. the house republican budget offered by congressman ryan proposes the lowest top rate of all.

it left huge holes in the rest of the plan, the better to disguise its impact on the deficit and the middle class. the promises of lower rates amount to little more than happy talk when the math behind them does not add up. the risk for serious policy- makers is if upfront rates -- a french rate cut of the starting point for negotiations on tax reform, it will box as in on what else we can achieve. certain lawmakers will pocket the rate reductions and never follow through on finding enough revenue elsewhere in the code to reduce the deficit. or if they do, it will almost certainly come out of the pockets of middle-class earners. this is the track of traditional tax reform -- the trap of traditional tax reform and we must not fall for it. to cut taxes on the wealthiest people, reduce the deficit, and

hold the middle class a harmless. but the math dictates that you cannot have it all. arithmetic, as president clinton said. any path forward on tax reform that promises to cut rates will either end up failing to reduce the deficit or failing to protect the middle class. you can achieve two zero of these goals. anyone pushing a plan purported to accomplish all three is not telling the truth. the sooner we're honest with ourselves about this, the easier it will be to negotiate an actual compromise on taxes and deficit reduction. >> and that was chuck schumer from earlier today. he will be able to see all of that event in about an hour, 8:00, right after the west virginia's governor debate. coverage of the debate.

mr. tomblin won a special election against mr. maloney in 2010. the debate this evening coming from charleston and getting under way momentarily. it is courtesy of the west virginia broadcasters' association. we continue to bring you live coverage of house senate and governor's races across the country. you can catch them on our website in the video library. the vice presidential debate is coming up on thursday. we will have that for you beginning at 7:00. live to west virginia for the governors' debate.

>> good evening and welcome to the west virginia as broadcasters association gubernatorial debate sponsored by aarp. i'm charles ryan, your moderator. we are here at the walter her theater in downtown charleston and with a live audience which has agreed to hold the applause. something we're going to do right now. first governor erica j. ray tomblin -- [applause] and mr. bill maloney -- [applause]

sounds like we have an enthusiastic audience tonight. the coin toss has determined the order of debate. the governor will receive the first question. mr. maloney will have the closing statement. the first question goes to gov. tomblin. for years now, west virginia has relied on jobs through energy. most everyone agrees that employment in the energy sector has taken a major heads presenting a severe threat. my question to you, governor, what plan would to introduce in january if elected to jump start manufacturing and create more high-tech jobs in the state?

>> absolutely. let me say thank you for moderating. we want to welcome our viewers out there. west virginia -- we have our financial house in order at the state level. we are increasingly seeing more and more businesses coming to west virginia wanting to invest and expand. obviously, we have a college system that is poised to offer training to our workers, to hone their skills. we have a great department of commerce who works daily with those manufacturing companies. we have a great deal of potential because of the

drilling in west virginia to reinvigorate our manufacturing sector. especially if we received to be able to take the byproducts of the shale gas bubble help reinvigorate our plastics and three -- industry, chemical industry. tore ready, willing, able train the employees. >> mr. maloney, response? >> you do not get it. we have been poised for so long. we need to do the fundamental things that need to be done to bring back manufacturing, to bring back the jobs that were here. be a lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs on your watch. 30,000 mining jobs. we have to fix our tax code,

take on the bureaucracies that hold business back. fix the cronyism that exists in the state. >> do those words bother you at all, the governor? >> he is blaming me for every job loss for 40 years. i've only been governor for about 20 months. >> i have a question for mr. maloney. kohl has always been crucial to the state's economy. --coal has always been crucial to the state's economy. can you diversified the state's economy while continuing to support cold? how would you do that? >> we have lost 3000 mining jobs this year. instead of sitting back and taking it, we need to be proactive. we have an action against the epa. we need to take on obama's epa. we have a cap-and-trade bill

right here in west virginia that needs to go way. andeed to promote colal bring back manufacturing. it is something that wants to come to west virginia. until we fix those fundamental problems, they are not coming. we're building things, sending them to the gulf coast. we're not even on the radar screen. >> governor, about 45 seconds. >> i want to correct you once again. we did not pass a cap control built -- cap-and-trade bill in west virginia. we do have the energy portfolio build. coal and natural gas is part of that energy that will be used in west virginia. if you look in your home county, there is a plant burning

coal cleaning west virginia. i know how important those coal miner jobs are. the epa is overstepping their bounds. there have been four federal judges to have spent their hands. -- who have spanked their hand. >> this clement limit -- this bill limits the use of coal and natural gas. i do not know how you can defend this thing. >> what do you say to a coal miner and his wife and to the children, what you say to them about colal? >> it hurts all of us when a man or woman loses their job in west virginia.

one of the things we have to offer to offer training for new jobs. people who have lost their jobs, their family members, in order to retrain them and give them the kind of skills or they can work in another industry. the coal and gas industry in west virginia, or whatever they choose. it is one of those things that we certainly hope the demand for coal will go back up and a lot of these miners will go back to work. we had a very warm winter this year. because of what is going on in europe and asia, the world market, the demand has declined. the experts are predicting that the demand will go up in the months to come. for those to have lost their jobs, we are ready to give them

the kind of training they need. >> bill maloney, your message to the west virginia coal miner? >> i have been all over the state. you look in their eyes, they have almost given up hope. they do not see a future. we need to have a governor who will fight for them and do what is right. i told my livelihood to the coal industry. we need a governor who will stand up and fight the epa and repeal the crazy house built. i do not see this happening. >> you both mentioned natural- gas. natural-gas has always been important to west virginia. producing more natural gas east of the mississippi for many years. it is even more so important with the modern technologies that transform the industry.

pennsylvania rather than west virginia was the choice for the plant. what can west virginia do to make certain it will reap some benefits from that plant? some say we can work with local petrochemical and manufacturing plants to make certain infrastructure is in place so they might expand product lines? does that make sense to you? >> let me clarify one thing. when they chose pa., they had not announced they would build -- they have taken an option on property there. they need a site specific site. therefore, -- obviously, it is going to benefit all of the states. ohio, west virginia, and pennsylvania.

>> we need to fix some fundamental things and it will be tough to get these facilities here in west virginia. marathon announced a new facility across the river in ohio. it is like we're not on the radar screen until we fix the major problems that kept us 48, 49th, 50th in every category. we have got to fix some things. >> such as? >> we have out-of-control lawsuits. we need leadership to take these issues on and fix that. our tax code is archaic. we can give a tax break, but what about their customers and suppliers? we need to fix the way we tax and make it fair for everyone. and quit picking winners and lizards because most of the time, we pick losers. -- winners and losers because most of the time, we pick losers. >> the price of gas is near 10-

year lows. from a policy perspective, to ensure economic benefits from natural gas, what would you do? people talk about municipal bans, from a policy perspective, and i'm asking you to elaborate. >> i sit on an energy panel in tampa. in case you have not noticed, the epa is after the natural gas industry already. we have holdups, so we need to fix those things and be ready to take on the overreach of the federal government. we want them here in west virginia. there is a huge industry if we fix the fundamental problems we have. you do not have to pick winners

and losers. >> governor, do you want to respond to that? you have 45 seconds. the newspaper recently said that you had been under the federal -- what is your response to what mr. maloney has to say? >> i am one of those persons who sees the bright side. we have a lot of good things going on in west virginia. he normally point out everything bad that is going on. solving water to problems, he always mentions the court system. the courts have taken the criticism. recently, within the past week, have started their new business court. that is going to be very helpful to businesses.

i think we need to give them time to see how they work. if they do not work, we can change things. he talks about to many lawsuits in the state of west virginia. he is sitting here criticizing me i do not know which way you are going. >> utility rates continue to be an issue. the regulatory challenges the coal industry faces are well documented. there resulted in significant investments by utility providers to comply with federal environmental policies. manufacturers, small businesses, residential ratepayers have experienced dramatic increases in utility costs.

how would you work with the legislature to balance future investments? >> west for dinner has had the title of many years of having some of the cheapest electric rates in the entire country. -- west virginia has had the title of many years of having some of the cheapest electric rates in the entire country. our electric prices have gone up, but this is the same thing you will see in all the states. including all the surrounding states. because of that, we will be able to continue burning coal. basically, we will do what we can, the public service commission will do what they can, to keep the rates down and as affordable as possible. >> are you satisfied with that answer?

>> instead of trying to put a band-aid on this, we should have epa.t mr. obama''s we need to take advantage back and we need a governor who will stand up and do what is right. things are not happening. >> those regulations from the epa were put in place under the bush of ministration. that is the reason those upgrades remain to the power plants. >> you mentioned that the cost would be too high under the rate schedule and it will not reopen as this time. century sensible work together to get further concessions. your position on government efforts to support large manufacturing with special electrical rates or financial incentives all along the line

of -- if you were governor, do you -- or walk away? >> this is another in a long list of convoluted deals we have had to come up with to save our basic industries. we do not need any more convoluted deals. we need a level playing field. we should not be giving a special deal to century when they have -- because they have the right lobbyist. take on the basic problems that we have. people want to be here. >> i will do everything i possibly can to make sure those jobs returned to jackson county. it is important to the community, it is important to the state of west virginia. i will continue to work with the century officials as well as the retirees to do everything in my power to make sure those jobs return. >> governor, some say west

virginia is just now entering an economic downturn. things have been pretty good so far, but economic downturn resulting in less money for state services that was to virginians have come to expect. where will you cut services if tax dollars and fees begin to dwindle? i am looking for some specificity. >> we have a six-year projection for the budgetary needs for the state of west virginia. it has been known that 2014 fiscal year was going to be tough. west virginia had been doing well because of that, the federal government has cut its reimbursement rates for medicaid. that is the reason next year, it will be $200 million additional cost for medicare. we have been able -- we did have a surplus, we put $65 million aside into the medicaid trust

fund to resolve that shortfall. i've also asked my agencies to cut their budgets by 7.5%. in order to be fiscally responsible and live within our budget. we are preparing for the additional cost for medicaid and i think our agencies can live within the budget. we are not cutting education as part of that. they will be exempt from the cuts. >> you will look for teacher pay raises? >> i would love to have teacher pay raises at the national average. at the same time, we have to be able to afford them. >> i got into this year and a half ago. we had this to hundred million dollar number of here. we had an assumption -- $200

million number out there. i knew those were false. we have to get some realistic leadership that has some vision. we need a budget that would go down. there are so many investigations going on right now, so many things being done wrong. there is no accountability in government. we have an education department -- we need to audit every one of these departments. we need some metrics, coles and objectives, we need to run the state like a business. >> mr. maloney, years ago, the word privatization -- today, there is praise for the privatization of the worker's compensation system. would you privatize other sectors of state government? if so, which once and house and

went to do it? >> -- h -- which one and house and would you do it? -- how soon would you do? >> there is a long list of things the government does. i sat with a bunch of podcasters last night talking about how did -- i sat with a bunch of contractors last night talking about how to get infrastructure funding. >> what are they? >> i am in the construction field so i have been a around a lot of those people. it is so much cheaper for the state to do it. they did not look at the overhead. the overhead the state has is a huge number. if you put a pencil to it, there are a lot of things that the state could be doing. i'm sorry, the private sector.

private roads, a private water systems. a lot of ideas we need to look at. >> governor, reaction? >> the privatization of the workers' comp was a huge success in the state of west virginia. it was a system that was completely broken. everybody had their hand in the pot and nobody was putting money into it. in the last five years, we had one of the highest workers' comp premiums in the entire country. that was a real detriment to trying to attract businesses. in the past five years, those premium rates have gone down by 60%. today, we are one of the lower ones. we're doing much better and it is because of privatization.

>> any other privatization plans on your desk? >> we hire a lot of outside services, a lot of case management and our health department, medicaid department. we do privatized several things. a lot of things government does do best. >> there is obviously prison overcrowding, it has become a major problem. how would you find new facilities? would you see a change in west virginia law to allow for the privatization of prisons? >> we do have a problem with overcrowding in the presence. -- prisons. they have been able to help many states, including the state of texas. because of that advice, the

state follows the recommendations. the state of texas has extra beds in their system. it is my hope that we'll be able to address the crowd in situation with the recommendations. so we do not have to build new prisons. they're very expensive to build and operate. we should have a report on that by the end of the year. >> mr. maloney, what is your plan? >> the trick is to have less prisoners. the way you do that is to have an economy where there is some hope and opportunity for fox. when you are 50th in every category, this is something we did there is just a lack of opportunity.

in addition, look at some of the faith based initiatives, some of the private things we have done, some of the mentoring programs, most of the prison overcrowding, prisoners keep coming back with the same issues. we need to fix the way we are doing things. >> west virginia is one of the few states taxing capital investment. critics say it is a tax burden that stumps and development. they want that burden eliminated. that would take a constitutional amendment. would you support using the governor's office to eliminate the tax on capital investments? >> it is going to be a tall order. there are some things we need to do just to start the process. we've got a lot of ideas out there. blueprint for a brighter future, eliminates the personal

property tax for the first three years. that equipment is not coming here anyway. the inventory tax is a big burden. i know you get a deduction on your income tax, your franchise tax, but he cannot carry it forward. let's carry it forward. these are a couple of simple things. long term, we need a constitutional amendment to fix the we tax. >> we cannot eliminate one tax without finding a way our school systems are funded properly. obviously, i will continue to work with all parties to see what we can do to lower or limit the equipment tax or the inventory tax.

when you eliminate one tax, you have to have another one to backfill. you cannot simply take that amount of money out of the tax system and expect our school systems to continue to operate. >> it would be great to have this tax is gone, but where do we find a replacement tax that would keep our school systems going? >> this is something -- it gives cities opportunities to do things on a local level. this is something we need to work on statewide for cities and counties to have more control of their own destinies. do things on a local level that makes sense for their communities. huntington is a lot different than martin's burk. -- martinsburg.

>> if the tax were eliminated, how would replace it? >> we have to find a way to replace it. we would have to look someplace else. whether it would be to other real estate owners, it has to come from someplace. even some sort of a local real estate tax. the problem with what mr. maloney is saying, to allow each of the county's tax deferment, it would take a constitutional amendment -- allow each of the county's to tax different, it would take a constitutional amendment. >> there was one city that eliminated the manufacturing with the sales tax.

if it takes a constitutional amendment, we need to do that. we had one option to get a road built. that was the only option. we should have more options. >> i am not going to ask either of you what your position is in regards to burning couches. mr. maloney, the west virginia, you mentioned education and that is in the cross hairs and has been for some time now. the west virginia higher education policy commission issued a report indicating that a west virginia is everybody's business. 12 public colleges and universities in the state based on enrollment. the executive vice chancellor for administration of the commission says going forward, we will see more funding based

on graduates or retention rates. do you support benchmarks on institutional enrollments or on graduation and retention rates? >> that is something we need to take a hard look at. the graduation and retention rates would mean more to me. that is something we should look at. higher education is a big part of what we need to be doing better in west virginia. i know we are 50th in the number of college graduates. that is a big detriment to the job market coming into western virginia. we need more highly trained, highly skilled people for the jobs that want to come here. we need to do what is right for the higher education system and promote folks to go to college and stay in west for genuine a graduate. >> -- west virginia when they graduate. >> i am not sure i got the answer. >> we push people to degrees

here in west virginia. >> do you support benchmarks on institutional enrollment or graduation rates? governor? >> absolutely. having one of the lowest graduation rates in the country is totally unacceptable. we have to do everything we can to make sure more of our students complete. it is not the number of those going to college, it is the number of students who complete. studies show in the next several years, most of the jobs market will demand to your degrees. that is one of the areas where we can really improve our college graduation rates. when i first became governor, i brought all the college president in and told them it is your responsibility to get to know the business people. what kind of training to their employees need. their meeting with different

businesses, they're starting at programs. they can start a program fairly quickly, train the workers, the kind of skill sets the need. that is per we will see the increase in our college graduation rates. >> the audit to find ways to upgrade public schools has recommended principles be allowed to hire and promote outstanding teachers regardless of seniority. do you support these recommendations? how we address concerns out there by the state's teachers organizations? >> we have conducted meetings all across the state. to see where we need to go with

our education system. we have implemented some of those things. we have been able to get legislation passed to ask for a waiver for no child left behind. >> we had an audit we spend $750,000 fine. we're going on a lessening torah. we hired a consultant -- on a listening tour. our kids deserve so much better. we need more local control. we need more parental control. we need more decisions made on the local level. that is key to getting a good education for your child.

>> i want to move on to retirement. 31 municipalities have 53 retirement systems. they have a debt in excess of a billion dollars. should the state bailout the city's but if not, what tools should the state provide to assist the cities to fund retirement? >> that is one of the reasons this was started because cities had trouble and needed more local decision making. that is something we need to push through. get more control at the city and county level for their pensions and let them raise revenues how they see fit to manage their obligations. that is not a thing the governor and his golden dome really should have a whole lot of control over. we need to let them have more control over their pension and give them the tools they need. >> governor? >> i am very pleased with what

we have been able to do with their state liabilities with our retirement system. we put ourselves -- we continue to do exactly what that has advised us to do. we have worked with municipal mayors to determine how we will fix this. we have passed legislation that gives the cities and municipalities some flexibility in the ways they go about addressing their own funded liabilities. we will continue to work with them. >> many west virginia counties still do not have access to high-speed internet services. these services are now as essential as water and good roads or economic viability. folks refer to the academia, business is, and communities.

how would you speed broadband development and utilize technology in order to connect the abc's? >> that is what the broad band program we have in place right now. we should have brought down in every single county. we were able to announce a couple of weeks ago that by december, they will have the availability of broadband. that is all part of the reconnect project. trying to get that into one of the poorest counties in west for daniel. broadband is very important, it is important -- eight counties in west virginia. we will have it in west virginia at close to the end of the year. >> broadbent is something that everyone needs to about west virginia. we had a stimulus money to the tune of $140 million.

we bought routers. we have nepotism involved down there. we have all these investigations going not. the money has been wasted. we have little pieces here and know they did little pieces there. -- we have little pieces here and little pieces there. we have to figure out how to get it done. this money was wasted. >> it is not being wasted. it is being installed. >> how many writers have been bought for $2,300 each? -- ralph terse happy been bought for $2,300 --- routers have been bought for $2,300 each? >> what kind of speed? >> will be one of the best wired states in the entire country. >> i do not know how to be able

to afford all that. >> the rest of the stimulus money. >> let me move on. [laughter] an area that is of importance to both of you. west virginia has the second oldest population in the nation. that has resulted in greater need for long-term services and support with demand expected to increase at a higher rate here than at any other state in the nation. critics say the current model is too costly. most care and support is provided by unpaged caregivers. other services are paid by medicaid, the general revenue fund. mr. maloney, if elected governor, how would you address these challenges? >> the biggest thing we can do is what i am very working -- is what i'm working hard on. elected mitt romney president and repeal obamacare. it is the biggest tax increase

in history. i am sorry, it does not work. we need common sense solutions were you can cross state lines with health care coverage. there is no common sense. we need to promote more self responsibility. we're the most unhealthy state and the nation. yet we are blessed with all of these resources. above all, we need to repeal obamacare. i am fighting hard to get that done. >> the governor, is it that simple? >> i disagree with mitt romney's positions on social security and medicaid. we do have a high number of senior citizens, one of the highest in the country. i am somewhat concerned about his positions as far as what he would do to put our social

security at risk and to change medicare as we know what's in west virginia. would i have done in order to help maximize the dollars we do have common i brought a national expert in to try to make our system more efficient, try to get a bigger bang for our buck. we will continue to do what we can to get the most efficient use on the dollars we spent in health care. >> since congress enacted the affordable care act, it has been widely criticized and debated. it has been subject to court challenges. here in west virginia, what would you do to ensure that west virginians have access to affordable health care? >> the supreme court ruled, a

lot of questions that popped up over that. we have been attempting to do everything we can to get answers to our questions on what states are allowed to do. to this point, the federal government has not been able to answer those questions. the last thing i want to do is to make a decision to move us forward with an affordable health care plan that will bankrupt west virginia. we are a small state and we have to live within our balance. i am waiting for a response back from secretary sibelius. do we have to go to the full percent of the poverty level or kemi go someplace in between? -- or time we go someplace in between? everyone needs to have health care and insurance. how much can we afford? i am waiting for the questions.

>> again, governor, you do not did it. this is the west virginia version of obamacare. we're the second state in the country to adopt this kind of thing. we sat back and let it become law and pushed the thing through. instead of doing what is right for west virginia, we did what is right for you and obama. >> what is your point? >> we need to repeal obamacare. this is something like your cap- and-trade that should not have been done. you can say whatever you want, but this is what you dead. >> half the states passed the same thing. nothing has gone through. >> you were the second in the nation. inor legislature's starts january every year. -- our legislature starts in january every year. >> the question on medicaid

post-obamacare -- >> we need to make people more independent, not dependent. that is something -- we need to make people have the opportunities to get ahead. did not force them into poverty. i do not think that is a good idea. >> we're trying to get answers on what our options are. we have not been able to get those answers. >> is this a politically tough question to answer prior to the election? >> i do not think so. it is a good government decision to make. before you make a decision, the auction scene to be explored. -- the options need to be explored. we need to know what our options are. >> we are three minutes away

from closing statements. there has been tremendous focus on dhhr. the secretary of the department has a flexible work schedules. considerable controversy regarding an advertising contract recently awarded. in three of the four of the lost federal reviews, officials found the state does not comply with eligibility requirements to receive federal assistance. 6000 employees. it is huge. has dhhr gone to bed? >> -- gotten too big? >> it is good to have a secretary there so they can coordinate the efforts between the various offices.

as far as the allegations of any wrongdoing, those are being looked at by the appropriate authorities. when those investigations are complete, i will take the appropriate action. the other thing i mentioned -- >> if those studies say you need to break it up, you are willing to do that? >> i am always open to look at any auction, absolutely. -- any option, absolutely. there is a lot of inner connectivity. >> we have some serious issues. it would be nice to have a director who spent time in charleston. we have a lot of serious issues. we have some great folks to work

for state agencies, but i get told, i cannot do this. dhhr is the worst for political cronyism and nepotism and we have to fix that. we have to promote from again. we have a lot of grit folks need to be paid for. how many consultants do we have on staff? it is over the top. we need leadership will take on the issues of the day. >> if you were governor, you would not look for any expert advice? >> if you ask the folks who are doing the job, they know how to do the job. you did not need to hire these consultants are related to somebody. i cannot keep track of them. >> we will take closing statements. gov. tomblin will make the first statement. each candidate will have two

minutes to make a statement. >> i want to say that this election should be about real facts and what we will do about things. problems within our states and not just sound bites. this is not washington, d.c., this is west virginia. we do things differently here. we have turned our state around differently from where it was 10 or 15 years ago. we're balancing our budget, we're paying down our long term debts. we were able to continue to cut our taxes, consumer sales tax on food as well as cut business taxes. we have been able to work with the legislature in a bipartisan manner to address many of the

main concerns. with bipartisan support, we were able to pass the first shale drilling regulatory bill. we were able to pass: safety bills. we were able to address problems with substance abuse and west virginia. we took on our last big liability. it was $10 million. we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. we have people out there suffering, still looking for jobs. we will need to continue to do what we can to help those. we will continue to improve our education system to make sure our children have world-class education. we need to continue to look at our infrastructure at all levels, broadband, highways, water could continue to make

west virginia business families so we can attract jobs. i want to say to the voters, i will always. west virginia first. >> thank you, governor. mr. maloney? >> i am tired of hearing the same old excuses. it could have been a lot better. every time i hear that, i wonder, we have forgotten who we are. we are the folks who carved out a state from the roughest terrain east of the mississippi. we send more of our young when -- men and women to war than any other state in the nation. we're proud god-fearing people and all we need is leadership. this election is about some simple things. jobs, mismanagement, corruption, and obama. my opponent is on the wrong side of every one of those issues. he says we need to stay the course. i say we need to build a

brighter future in west virginia. we can cut taxes, create jobs, and give the gift of opportunity to our children. all need is to have a plan. i have a blueprint for a brighter future. you can check it out. sharon and i built our lives here, we have built a family here, we have built businesses here. i never want to hear anyone say again, it could have been a lot worse. we deserve so much better. we deserve some much better. there is a brighter future for west virginia. we need leadership to take on what needs to be fixed and i stand ready to do that. god bless all of you for being here. god bless west virginia and god bless america. >> thank you for an evening that has given us great insight. i want to thank the live audience in the walker theater.

you have been very patient. thank you for not applauding. thank you for the laughter at various times. i want to thank the local stations airing tonight's broadcast. we would like to thank the of the worst about west virginia who have been watching this evening. -- viewers throughout west virginia to have been watching this evening. please go out and vote. good night. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> c-span will have live coverage of elections of governors and members of congress and every state between now and election day. a look at tomorrow night, live coverage of the debate between

u.s. senate candidate from arizona. that is at 8:00 on c-span. at 9:00, live coverage of montana's governor debate. you can watch out live on c- span2. this thursday, at joe biden and put ryan -- paul ryan meet for their only debate. the debate begins at 9:00, followed by a reaction from viewers. dick cheney debated senator john edwards eight years ago. here is part of that debate. >> i want to go back to the last comment. and then i will come back to israel-palestine. the reason why they want to attack halliburton is because they want to obscure their own record. you have missed 33 out of 36

meetings. 70% of the meetings in the intelligence committee. you have missed a lot of key votes on tax policy, energy, medicare reform. her hometown newspaper has taken to calling you senator gone. in my capacity as vice president, i'm the president of the senate. the first time i ever met he was when you walked onto the stage tonight. with respect to israel and palestine, the suicide bombers were generated by saddam hussein. they paid $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers. one of the reasons we do not have as many suicide attacks state in israel as we had in the past is because he is no longer in business. we have been strong supporters of israel. the president stepped forward and put in place a policy that

said we will support the establishment of two states. the first president to seven will support a palestinian state. -- who said we will support a palestinian state. >> senator edwards? >> that was a complete distortion of my record. i'm surprised to hear him talk about records. he was one of 435 members of the united states house, he was one of 10 to vote against headstart. one of 10 to vote against banning plastic weapons that can pass the metal detectors. he voted against the department of education, he voted against funding for meals on wheels for seniors. he voted against a holiday for martin luther king. he voted against a resolution calling for the release of

nelson mandela in south africa. it is amazing to hear him criticizing my record. >> his record speaks for itself. frankly, it is not three distinguished. >> you can see the only 2012 vice-presidential debate thursday night live on c-span, c-span radio, and online. watch and engaged. up next, senator charles schumer on tax policy. then business leaders discuss economic policy as a campaign issue. the center for national policy on the obama administration's use of drone of strikes. >> i watched on c-span the various congressional hearings and deliberation and public policy on information that is put out by the various think tanks. i like to watch the main interviews that are on sund